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Opportunity Rover Encounters Its Own Heat Shield
blamanj writes "Mars Rover Opportunity, a few meters shy of the 2km mark on its odometer, has come across the remains of the heat shield from its landing. This map traces the path of the rover for the past 11 months. It's been averaging about 6 meters/sol.
Spirit, which had to stop to dislodge a rock, is still climbing the "Columbia Hills". It's tough going, and Spirit experiences slippage of up to 80% as it climbs the hills."
After the heat shield, what will Opportunity look at? There's really not a whole lot--not even very many rocks--on that plain.
Are there scientific targets identified, or are they maybe going to try to "sprint" Opportunity and see how far it can get in the shortest amount of time? Maybe there's other potential sites of interest some distance away.
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$tar -xvf
It's not often that we get a chance to examine the integrity of the remaining heat shield in these missions. Let it take a look and see what JPL guys can learn from it for future missions, eh?
It will be interesting to see how much sand has been blown over the shield in almost a year. Might give more insights into Martian weather.
Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
- 1 Opportunity
- P Pancam
- 155450047 Number of seconds since Jan 1, 2004 at 11:58::55.816. (works out to Sol 307)
- Data product full frame EDR
That sort of stuff. I lost interest at that point.And no, I've not heard any comments on this picture yet. There are other pictures with frost, but water would be puzzling on the Martian surface at that pressure and temperature.
I'm pretty sure they'd have mentioned a leak in the Opportunity's radiator.
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This sig seemed like a good idea at the time....
When (yes when) humans colonize Mars and non-engineer/scientific humans are living there I wonder what they will do with the man made stuff from long ago that will be sitting there inert.
I have a couple of theories as to what the human race will do with this stuff:
a) Cordon off the area around the rovers and heat shields etc. as a "heritage park" for people to visit and think about the events of the past
b) Take the stuff and stick it in a museum on earth
c) As above but create the museum on Mars
d) Melt it down and recycle it
e) Revive the electronics and re-purpose the robots etc.
f) Dump it in the nearest canyon as landfill
Any other suggestions?
"And then I visited Wikipedia
The sun is named Sol. A "sol" is what we calls days except a sol is longer. Mars doesn't rotate as quickly as Earth thus making the days longer. Apparently the guys at JPL felt funny about making the "day" longer than the traditional 24 hours we experience here on Earth. They even began sleeping according to Martian sols.
What is your penile percentile?
I know it isn't going to happen due to the distances involved, but I'd love it if one of these rovers (or one of the rovers to follow...) were to come across Viking I and/or II. It would be interesting to see how they have withstood the test of time in the last 28 years since their landing. I imagine there is quite a bit of useful science that could be conducted, as both are known variables from nearly 30 years ago, and we have a lot of data from them about their surroundings.
At the same time, Viking I and Viking II are two of the extraterrestrial missions I have early memories of. I was three when they landed, and continued transmitting data until I was nine. So these are old friends I wouldn't mind revisiting.
The current missions aren't close enough to either one to make it, but maybe a future mission will give up a glimpse of these past heroes. One can hope :).
Yaz.
They already knew where the heat shield was. They had a picture from the Mars Orbiter camera
IIRC, the first images of the shield came from the rover's "decent" cameras when it was a few miles high. The images were used by the lander system to correct for vertical motion, which would have otherwise caused the air-bag-encased rover to bounce and roll too much. The system simply kept the adjustment images for later use and they were sent back to Earth soon after landing.
Table-ized A.I.
No, lutefisk isn't buried.
Rakørret is. Just another disgusting variety on the mostly-decayed-fish theme here in Scandinavia. You take salt in a big jar or bowl (must be thoroughly cleaned), add trout in layers (dorsal down, side-by-side, salt in between layers) and let it ferment (dig it down into the ground) for a month or three (6-10 weeks).
Every year some people die here in Norway from eating this "delicacy" prepared traditionally. When it's not done just right the meat is a perfect little place for bacteria, and general nasties. Incidentally, just now is the time we eat it (well, I don't), so if you read Norwegian you could keep an eye on our newspapers for the yearly deaths. Should be coming up any time now.
"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."
They would last years (assuming the dust doesn't screw up the wheels), be able to travel much farther, and opperate at night.
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.